Everything Everything: “Kemosabe”

Carried by an 8-bit backdrop last heard from a Super Nintendo, “Kemosabe” has an odd way of getting in your head. Alongside the blips and beeps running through the song are buzzing guitars and a catchy punctuated vocal melody channeled through falsetto and spouting what, from a few listens, seems like utter nonsense aside from a few strings of recognizable words and a “Kemosabe” here and there. Reminiscent of Beck’s absurd word association in “Loser,” if you can cut through the rapid falsetto, you’ll hear lines like, “Four walls and a cauldron of Kalashnikoving… short spears and the weak eternal monologuing, and our war is the crucible of all your longing”.

With a few dozen listens and bit more digging, you may pick up on subtle tributes to the Lone Rider and his faithful sidekick Tonto (references likely to be missed by young 20-somethings like myself). According to Everything Everything, the track is meant to be cryptic but revolves around the peculiar relationship between the two do-gooders. The song itself forces together two uneasy bedfellows, using sharp and highly digitized sounds to tell the story of a couple of lonely frontiersmen in the old west. Although the feeling of anxious confusion pervades both the lyrics and the music, you’ll come away from “Kemosabe” wanting another listen, wanting to glean a bit more the next time around.